I’ve been Top end of A yard herder. Also, engineman’s lockerroom herder. I don’t remember if I ever worked the hump. I worked mostly on the LA Brakeman’s extra board but in lean times would go on switchman’s board.
Half the jobs in 1976 off the brakeman’s board seem to be trips to Colton and back. The fun was the Coast run to San Luis Obispo. Or get augmented to the Colton board for Yuma trips or get the local in El Centro.
I grew up in the early 1970s along the Southern Pacific railroad’s Burbank branch. My mother worked for Lockheed and that allowed me to join the LERC model railroad club, which was named the Sierra Southern. The guys would always stop the trains and give my mother timetables when they saw me taking pictures, subsequently, I entered service for the Santa Fe on the Los Angeles Junction Railway in 1993. I’ve spent many years contracting, working as a boomer, which the old heads used to tell me, was a railroad employee who didn’t like being tied down. Ironically, I was contracting on the Portland & Western Railroad when the word came down that the EPA wanted to send a message to the railroads and ordered the old Black Widow GP9 and SD9 blocks drilled so they could never run again. Ironically, I was working the McMinnville switcher job that got the orders to go pick up the old GP9 in Tigard and bring her back to Salem for retirement. It truly is a shame when uneducated people with I’ll-hearts (aka: Democrat’s) gain power, they wield it like petulant children throwing a tantrum. I feel blessed to have grown up in a time when old heads took pride in their work and integrity was not a slogan used by imbeciles…
What is the carbon footprint on a locomotive that has been in service for 50+ years? Certainly less than the materials and production cost of a new unit.
I love your videos and it was so nice to see the D&RGW Dirty Dirt Train on the branch line. I grow up in Colorado and my Dad told me story of watching D&DGW Double Heading Steam through Colorado Springs on it way to Denver so you know what I grew up on. I was ok when Rio Grand bought out SP just a little hurt when they decided to go with SP colors, but I always liked SP also. I guess the real KICK IN THE TEETH came when I heard up (yes it's in lower case because that's what I think of up) was going to buy SP and the worst of it is to see the Class lights and the Nose lights plated covered over let alone the big ugly yellow number placards on the cabs. Sorry for ranting on, but I can say one thing there will never be any thing that can every replace the pure business colors of Black and Orange of the Denver & Rio Grande Western.
You forgot one locomotive: Alabama and Tennessee River SD40T-2 5387. Originally built for the DRG&W in 1978. It’s still in its SP paint and runs freight out of Birmingham, Alabama
This is awesome. In recent years I've come to realise I took for granted seeing SP locomotives as a kid. Now I miss them. There's a Cotton Belt unit (UP 1068) that's made it's way to the Oakland Terminal. For a while I caught regularly working the Milpitas Industrial Lead. Now I just see it occasionally in Oakland on my way into work in SF. Wish it were Southern Pacific labelled. Anyway, it's nice to see that some remain. I wish UP did more than 1 Heritage unit per line.
Miss the SP and ATSF. Every time I see an old warbonnet (or even fauxbonnet) where the red is pink and the silver is rusted bare metal, I curse the BNSF and their garbage maintenance and upkeep. And it isn't just the old ATSF stuff. Even their own locos are an embarrassment of burned, mis-matched doors, covers from different paint schemes, whatever. As for the SP. Loved seeing their exhaust caked tunnel motors and their shiny AC4400s. Such a contrast.
As A Kid Growing Up InnThe Southern California Area In The 50s/60s, I Remember Just How Clean And Shiny All The UP Units Were. And How All SPs We’re In Black Widow Livery.
Coincidentally, I was just recently taking some photos of locomotives at the Roseville Rail yards and got a shot of the Cotton Belt 1004 unit coupled with a Union Pacific 1419 unit. I was pleased to see it mentioned in this video.
What about the Southern Pacific SD45T-2 in Sacramento,CA at the California State Railroad Museum it’s going to be restored to pull excursions on the Sacramento & Southern Railroad
Not true. The SD70M's with the flared radiators and notched noses with flared radiators are still out there in large numbers. The older and original units are the ones finally getting scrapped and put into storage. The only older SD70M's that won't be tampered with are the 25 SD70M's currently on lease which are actually the former and first EMDX SD70M's (7000-7024) which were intially purchased by CSX until they returned all the units back to EMD. The C44-9W's were in storage for several years but have been steadily returning as C44ACM rebuilds. Those units also will be around for awhile.
I grew up in Creswell, Oregon, in the 1970s, and we got to see both SD9s running locals, as well as long lashups of tunnel motors pulling big manifests along that Siskiyou Line. All with lower-quadrant semaphores along every block. We lived about a mile from the line, and when a freight would rumble through town at night, I could feel the vibrations in my bed. Those were the days.
Southern Pacific was one of the best in the Nation SP standed for special power and I grew up with SP I will always remember them especially the gp9 GP 20s all the geeps and SD40s 50s and 60s And the U Boats And AC44-CW And SW1500s God Bless You 4 doing this video let's be on the right track with Jesus And pray that someday SP and Mo Pac come back to the tracks
I can remember seeing my first SP loco. It was 1976 in OHIO on a Chessie train coupled to a Western Maryland F7A.(The SP was a tunnel motor and the F was in black paint) Someone is getting old.
@AllThingsRailroad Update. Another SP motor arrived on the property today in the form of a SD40M-2. SP 9126 > SP 7524 > CEFX 3123 > OMLX 3123 > OMLX 408
When I was a kid growing up in my hometown of Dayton, Ohio, I often saw IORY trackage rights trains on the NS Dayton District that had ex-SP units leading them. That was first exposure to the SP before I soon moved to El Paso, Texas in 2011 when my stepdad was stationed there at Fort Bliss. When I lived in El Paso from 2011-2014, I caught dozens of patched and unpatched ex-SP units, including UP GP40P-2 #1375 and SP GP60 #9721! Years later, I moved back to El Paso in 2021, and I rarely ever see any SP units in SP paint now (considering the current circumstances). It was fun while it lasted, though.
3:00 WAMX 4246 doesnt work for the Wisconsin Southern, it currently runs on the Kansas and Oklahoma railroad in South Central Kansas. Just seen it a few weeks ago actually.
GEXR 3054 a SD45T2 which currently is working with the Buffalo & Pittsburgh, 3054 was built in 1975, owned by the SSW before being bought the SP numbered 9392
Very well put together video, learned a lot. Just one correction: UP 6367 was actually rebuilt and repainted in 2022 so there's only4 AC44s left in SP paint. Other than that it's a great video!
I’m here because I wanted to know if Cotton Belt 9389’s still around. I looked through some photos on Railroad Picture Archive to see see if there were any present day photos of the engine, but all I can find are photos of the engine in its Bicentennial colors through the 70s to one photo of it painted back to regular Southern Pacific/Cotten Belt colors in 1985. Sadly, I’ve just discovered that 9389 was scrapped after being involved in an accident on March 24th 1991. A few years ago before the accident, Cotten Belt 8993 was renumbered as Southern Pacific 6833 when it was rebuilt in the railroad’s GRIP Program in 1988.
HZRX 8600 > UP 2676 > SP 8600 currently running for RMRX out of Denver. HZRX 8614 > UP 2690 > SP8614 currently in TX working HZRX 1501 > FIR 1222 > UP 1165 > SP 2596 currently working East of Cleveland, OH
It would be nice if Union Pacific would repaint 3 maybe 4 of the 15 Southern Pacific locomotives in its original Southern Pacific colors and give one of them to Traveltown in Griffith Pack in Los Angeles, another to the Orange Empireailroad museum in Perrin, California, another or the Pacific Southwest railroad museum in Campo,California and one to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento if they didn’t scrap or sold them.
UP 6367 has been rebuilt, KYLE 9330 has been scrapped, and WAMX 4246 works for the Kansas & Oklahoma not the Wisconsin & Southern. Just a few corrections
Come on UP, put some fresh SP paint on these locomotives and keep them working as SP/SSW. Bring an SP painted Geep to work my area in Goodyear, Arizona. Git 'er done, thanks!
I think IORY 9500 is BUGX 7400. 9500’s original number was 7400, so IORY 9500 likely was remembered to its original SP number. According to RRPicturearchives, 9486 is now BUGX 7486.
@AllThingsRailroad it's OK, ive had family working for the TRC since the 1930's. It's definitely a historical place that has played a roll in supplying huge companies with raw materials for their products to helping win world wars. I can definitely say I can't wait until retirement though 😆
I work on the Wisconsin and Southern we don’t have the Wamx 4246 anymore but we do have the HLCX 6334 which is an old sp engine we lease for an update there
Most SD40T-2 models as well as 1 SD45T-2 went to America Latina Logistica....alot of others went to FCA and rebuilt to BB40 status....there was 2 B30-7 models made into BBs running around in SP paint but i think were repainted in 2017....ALL is now rumo were most SD40T-2 models still run .....fca is now VL! But they are retiring BB40t-2s....
unfortunately trona railroads tunnel motors days are numbered thanks to the California air recourses board giving them funding to scrap at least 3 of the locomotives 2 of which being tunnel motors and one being 2002 the remaining sd40s will be rebuilt into tier 4 standards but the Kodachrome will be donated to the Sacramento railway museum which is very nice of the company sad to see the tunnel motors go this will take effect in 2025 the epa sucks sd40s are cooler I also have video of the Kodachrome in operation ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SEyIUCvPodk.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oQGX1iPmZ7I.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XielpyriB20.html
